Late Brahms Piano Works -- that's Ops 116 - 119 mainly.

[George]

I have always loved these works, but never found a set of them that I would unreservedly call my favorite. I always find myself wishing they were more poetic here, less virtuosic there, etc. As of now, I feel Angelich comes closest, but I have decided to revisit what I have and see what I come up with.

These are the complete or almost complete sets that I own:

Backhaus
Gieseking
Kempff - mono
Katchen
Alexeev
Lupu
Kovacevich
Gould
Rudy
Angelich

[George]

I liked Backhaus a lot, Rittner, the earlier Grimaud one, Katchen... even Afanassiev is interesting in an analytical sort of way iirc. Only one I really disliked was Kempff, which is why I put his name up there.

Yeah, I listened to Kempff's 1950s Brahms tonight and I did not like it at all.

Then I put on Backhaus (Naxos) and liked it a lot more. I felt it was much easier to follow, I could get into his rhythm easily, whereas with Kempff I could not. When I heard Backhaus's previously, I quickly discounted it. But tonight I hear a lot more beauty and clarity in his interpretations. 

[staxomega]

Had a couple of Brahms albums in my heavy rotation on Qobuz

Kun-Woo Paik - phenomenal, jesus. Up there with the very best interpretations I've ever heard for this music. Maybe it's recency bias for having Block playing Iberia in my heavy rotation with my Iberia comparisons but this is about analogous to that; Paik just has that touch or feel for Brahms. And it's Paik so the tempos are a touch on the slow side but it's never ghoulish, I just can't believe how stunning his interpretations and playing are. I think I actually like this more than his already reference level Schubert disc because his use of pedals isn't quite as lean as on the Schubert, though that in itself makes that disc interesting. Yes, I believe this is the best Kun-Woo Paik album I've heard.

Daniele Pollini op. 119. I strongly agree with Jed Distler comparing this to M. Pollini playing op. 111, "purposeful bleakness." I'm not as fond of Stephen Hough that he calls superior (more balanced). Solid Schoenberg as well but nearly half the disc is Carnaval...

[Mandryka]

I listened to some of Burkard Schliessmann's op 116 today, it's on spotify, really because this thread came up and because I got a lot of interesting things from his new recording of Chopin preludes, also on spotify. Anyway I think it's well worth catching, more so than his op 117, and it shows what rubbish the idea that autumnal nostalgia is a vital part is - that way of playing it seems to me to have done the reception of the music more harm than good in fact, reducing it to grandad stuff.

There's a "mystical" quality to the music sometimes, in the 116 intermezzo for example.  Sort of thing people find in late Beethoven but I hadn't noticed before in late Brahms. And a sort of psychological quality, hallucinatory, sort of thing I associate more with Chopin.

Returning to this again this morning, first time in nearly 7 years. Listened to op 118. If I didn't know better I'd have said this is Arrau playing,  so bass up is the tone. Contrapuntal, we really have a duet for two hands in these performances. Lots to enjoy here, I plan on revisiting all of Schliessmann's recordings soon.

[Mandryka]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPNsNhzHcWw&ab_channel=INVIGORATION

Anton Kubalek's first recording of op 116 -- just found after listening to his recordings of the late music on Dorian. Kubalek is a well balanced performer of late Brahms -- he somehow finds the juste milieu between old fashioned lyrical "deeply felt" direct approaches like Gieseking and Kempff and Backhaus, and the sort of modern interpretation(Gould, Pogorelich, Sokolov)  where the piano player highlights inner voices and slows down tempos to produce something mysterious and full of unexpected incidents. 

Hough is another good one to think about in these terms, I think.